February 2012 Archives

About midnight, February 26, F/V NEPTUNE 1 went aground on Umnak Island, near the western tip of the Aleutian Chain. Prior to grounding, the crew of three radioed the Coast Guard that they had lost engine power and were drifting toward shore.

The Coast Guard deployed a Jayhawk helicopter, Hercules airplane, and the Cutter ALEX HALEY to the island. F/V ALASKAN ENTERPRISE, which had been 25 miles from NEPTUNE 1, also responded and provided valuable assistance by relaying communications between NEPTUNE 1 and the Coast Guard, and by using their flood lights as a guide for the Jayhawk crew during rescue.

Two fishermen aboard 81-foot F/V PLAN B sent a call to the Coast Guard Sector Northern New England, reporting that they were taking on water about eight miles off Kennebunkport, Maine, and that their pumps were not working fast enough to keep them from flooding, in weather noted to be two-foot seas with winds up to 15 knots. The two men were rescued and taken aboard in good shape by Good Samaritan F/V CAMERAN LEE, after CAMERAN LEE responded the Coast Guard's urgent marine information broadcast.

The Coast Guard deployed a helicopter, two rescue boats, and a cutter, and currently the Coast Guard cutter is still at the scene.

PLAN B was determined by the Coast Guard to be unsafe to board and pump; she continued to take on water and sunk a few hours after her crew was rescued, leaving an oil sheen reported by Coast Guard Station South Portland to be 200 by 200 square feet. The Coast Guard picked up the large debris left by PLAN B and will monitor the pollution caused by the sinking.

The fishermen were prepared with survival suits and working communication equipment. Timely communication and quick action by all crews involved prevented serious injury or death.

A 57-year-old man was killed Sunday after falling into the chemical holding tank of a barge located on the banks of the Willamette River in Portland, according to fire officials.

The man was first reported missing around 10am local time by a co-worker who had thought the man could have fallen overboard. The employee said he had last seen the man near the hatch of the chemical hold and just briefly turned away before turning back and realizing his co-worker went missing. Firefighters responding to the scene said they had found a rope that led into an open hatch that covered a chemical holding tank on the barge. Almost 4 hours later, the man's body was pulled from the emptied tank by HAZMAT crews.

A fisherman went missing from his boat at Penn Cove, Whidbey Island, this past Sunday, February 12. At approximately 2:30 that afternoon, a Swinomish Tribal Fisheries patrol crew noticed a 32-foot fishing boat motoring in circles with no one aboard. Reportedly, witnesses had noticed one man onboard at around 12:30 that same day. The boat is registered as a Swinomish tribal boat.

Coast Guard helicopter crew searched during the daylight hours on Sunday and Monday morning, while Coast Guard boat crews searched through the night. Whidbey Island rescue teams joined the search effort, and Snohomish County Sheriff's Office divers explored the water near the fishing boat and crab pots. A Coast Guard cutter had joined the search by Monday morning. The search was suspended at 10:45 a.m. on Monday, after 21 hours.

A portion of the lower Mississippi River remains closed Friday after two barges collided approximately 50 miles north of New Orleans.

According to a Coast Guard report, a construction barge being towed by the M/V Alydar collided with a tank barge being towed by the M/V Clarence W. Settoon early Friday morning near mile marker 139 on Mississippi River. As a result, the tank barge suffered a gash in her side above the waterline that released some of her cargo of Louisiana sweet crude oil.

The Coast Guard rescued a man from a 35-foot sailboat in Nisqually Reach, northeast of Olympia, on Tuesday night.

The man onboard a sailboat named Four of Us made a mayday call just after 7:30 p.m., reporting that the boat had either ran aground or was taking on water. He was unsure of his location, and the Coast Guard dispatched a helicopter from its Port Angeles station to find him.

The Coast Guard said Friday that it has approved a salvage plan submitted by Foss Maritime to remove the supply ship M/V Delta Mariner and section of bridge that still rests across her bow more than a week after striking the Kentucky bridge.

The 312 foot Delta Mariner, which is owned and operated by Foss, struck the Eggner's Ferry Bridge located on the Tennessee River near Paducah, KY, on January 26th, taking a nearly 350 foot span of the aging bridge with it. No injuries to the crew or pedestrians on the bridge were reported and there was no threat of environmental damage.

NEW ORLEANS, LA - On Tuesday, January 31, 2012, a Federal Judge ruled in the civil case involving BP, Plc and Halliburton, the company that provided the cement that was supposed to seal off the Macondo well head in the Gulf Oil Spill disaster in April, 2010.

The amount of damages that has been awarded in the aftermath of the Gulf Oil Spill has amounted to $40 billion for cleanup costs, damage claims and economic losses. BP has filed a lawsuit against Halliburton to recover some of the damages that arose out of the disaster.